Pages

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Xi-Obama summit aims to boost ties, aspirations between China and USA

Chinese
President Xi Jinping (L, front) shakes hands with US President Barack
Obama at the Annenberg Retreat, California, the United States, June 7,
2013. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Barack Obama,
met Friday to exchange views on major issues of common concern. Photo:
Xinhua

Chinese
President Xi Jinping (1st R) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama
(1st L) at the Annenberg Retreat, California, the United States, June 7,
2013. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Barack
Obama, met Friday to exchange views on major issues of common concern.
Photo: Xinhua

Southern California residents are preparing a warm
welcome for presidents of the world's two largest economies ahead of
their two-day summit at Sunnylands. Anticipation is high for closer
Sino-US ties that will help people from both countries pursue their own
dreams.

"I'm glad that both presidents will come. I'm sure once
they see Sunnylands, they'll want to see it again," John Benoit, chair
of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, said of the exclusive
Rancho Mirage estate.

Benoit, a local highway patrol commander
during the late 1980s when then-President Ronald Reagan regularly
visited Sunnylands for New Year's Eve, told the Global Times he was
eager to see the winter retreat formerly owned by late philanthropists
Walter and Leonore Annenberg become the "Camp Davis of the West Coast"
ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit.

"People in the
world all dream about having a better life for themselves and their
children," said Benoit, whose father's cousin was a priest in China
during the 1940s. Benoit said that both the American and Chinese dreams
have their own obstacles and opportunities, adding American people "have
more challenges today than in the past."

John Harley, who works
at a Riverside County-based company that grows and sells grapes, noted
people from China and the US share common aspirations. "We're all
people, and we all desire the same things: happiness, love and family,"
he said.

Harley told the Global Times that his company, which
exports grapes to Shanghai and Hong Kong, posts an annual revenue of $15
million. "I see this business growing over the next decade. The better
the relationship between the two governments, the better it is for our
businesses."

Edward Chenghua Cai, president of the Southern
California Chinese-American Federation, noted some Chinese-Americans had
flocked to Rancho Mirage two days ahead of the private summit, which
begins Friday, to express their hopes for deeper ties.

Wai-Jen Jeffries,
president of the US National Organization of Chinese Women, told the
Global Times she has personally known Xi for over two decades, having
met the president during his visit to the US as Party chief of Fuzhou,
Fujian Province, in the 1990s.

"He's very easygoing and not
interested in formalities at all. He calls me 'elder sister' every time I
see him," she said of Xi. "I'm sure the two presidents' pragmatism will
strike up the two countries' ties and bring people on both sides more
benefits."